Pitch Black
---- Days ago.. ---- The sunlight unique to the Land of Fire seemed quite dim this day, and for good reason. The infamous Poison Frog had emerged from his haven hidden from the eyes of the public. Holding his hand was his trusted subordinate Mayu, a small creature who was heavily wrapped up to avoid the attention of others, notably, the unique butterfly wings that laid upon his back. Genshou was quiet as he approached the intimidating gates of the land's village. "Father?" Mayu broke the silence with is soft voice. Genshou decided not to answer his "son", as he knew that he would be bombarded with unnecessary questions. "Father, I can't find my bottle." Mayu spoke again, and this time, it alerted Genshou. The last thing he wanted was for Mayu to transform into his monstrous form, the one that he had attempted to erase. He had found a solution for that problem, but without it, Mayu would definitely rampage. He reached into his robes and grabbed a bottle full of blue liquid, handing it to Mayu. "Mayu, don't you dare leave me to be the one responsible for your bottle. You're not a baby." Genshou said rather harshly, harsh enough to sap the happiness out of him. Entering the village, Genshou and Mayu had already gathered the attention of many passersby, but Genshou could care less. He was planning something important, and it would start with meeting a notable person. After noticing a sign labeled "Shioni Bar", Genshou walked into the establishment quickly. Everyone who was either sipping from a cup of sake, or eating onigiri, turned to look at the duo. The owner of the place came to meet them. "Um, hello sir, I'm Shioni. Unfortunately, children are not allowed in this place. Terribly sorry." the man, whose hair was brown and tied into a ponytail, said these words nervously. Genshou's expression turned sinister. Quickly, his hand traveled along the hilt of Muzanyaiba, the strange sword of his. "Death is a wonderful thing. Would you like to experience it?" his voice sent chills through Shioni's body. "N-no sir." he croaked, a bead of sweat running from his forehead to his chin. "Aw, really? shame on you for rejecting such a lovely thing. Now, leave." Genshou punctuated his statement with a twisted grin that sent the man running to his room behind the counter. Just then, time seemed to return to normal, everyone resumed their actions. Genshou and Mayu sat at the back of the bar, waiting for someone by the name of "Saizen Kinsei". Genshou's presence in itself is enough to send chills down the spines of those present in the bar. Genshou was a smart shinobi, he remembered the favorite bar of his old acquaintance. The man who Genshou awaits is no ordinary shinobi. He's considered one of Konoha's elites and is a shinobi that risked the destruction of that village on several occasions. Genshou didn't have to wait a long time though. After thirty five minutes, the bell that's hanged by the door of the bar rings, signifying the entrance of someone. A man with a large straw hat on his head enters. Despite his hat, his silver hair was clear like silk threads dangling from his head. One can also notice his eyepatch that conceals his right eye. He has a small bunny on his shoulder wearing the same blue Kimono as him. One can easily predict that it's his summoned animal. The man strides slowly towards the counter and takes off his hat, resting it in front of him. He then orders some sake and starts drinking. What's notable is the bunny on his shoulder. He seems to be very sleepy and lazy, just like his master. Genshou scowled at the lax man. Mayu waved energetically at the bunny with a large smile on his face. "You do realize that I didn't call you here to drink, right? These are important matters!" Genshou shook the table violently as he yelled. He sighed and took off his hat as well. Underneath it was long blue hair, appearing like a deep blue waterfall, he had not cut it in months. His yellow eyes flickered to Saizen's eye, with the other being hidden by an eyepatch. "I'm looking for someone, a woman from my village actually." he smirked, handing Saizen a photo of the girl. Her hair was long and blonde, with one side of her face being hidden by her hair. Mayu blushed. "She's very pretty, father." Saizen stares at the livid Genshou and blinks twice, maintaining an impassive expression. He then takes another sip of his sake. Placing it down, he looks at the picture in front of him then looks at Genshou. He takes another sip of his sake and wait a few seconds while staring at the man dead in the eyes. Only to utter "Yeah, she looks familiar. Her visage is hard to forget. What's even harder to forget is her ... physique." he chuckles then takes another sip. The crazed man growled underneath his breath. "Damn her physique, Saizen. I need to know where I can find her! my sources revealed to me that she is Chigen, the one responsible for the Bloody Mist Massacre of Kirigakure. No one knows where she is now, but I'm determined to find her. I'd like to.. conduct.. some experiments on her." he licked his lips wildly. Mayu laughed at his father, which brought Genshou's sinister gaze. "W-What are you laughing for!?" he stuttered, trying to maintain his composure. "Nothing, father. It's just.. when you can't wait to experiment, you do that thing with your mouth!" Mayu returned to his giggles. Genshou's mood took a crash at the point. "You know I have problems, my little butterfly." Saizen looks at Mayu, then back at Genshou. "Yeah you heard? The Chigen is back. Many thought she was dead. However, I didn't expect her to be that woman. All I know of her is that she's a bounty hunter. She came for my neck two years ago. However, I managed to escape." Saizen's bunny shivers at the sight of the picture. "My fellow here witnessed her abilities as well. If it wasn't for him, I might be dead by now." Saizen pauses and takes a deep breath. "She actually told me her actual name as she thought she would kill me. Her name is ... Yuzuki" "She managed to pull off a massacre in Kirigakure, one where she slaughtered over third of the village's military. Then escape Kirigakure alive. Furthermore, she was able to conceal her presence for over thirty years, escaping from each and every bounty hunter let alone Kirigakure's forces. Additionally, she was able to become the Captain Commander of the Stealth Division in Ame and announced her existence when she saw was fit. What a true mastermind. I'd be careful if I were you. She's now located in Ame. And she has enough courage to announce her existence, despite the bounty on her head. A gutsy one indeed." Saizen utters before pausing and looking at Genshou awaiting his response. Mayu gasped at Saizen's comment. "The little bunny saved you!" he said loud enough to earn more attention, but the people only brushed it off as childish babble. Little did they know that the trio were talking of an important piece of the puzzle, information that a bounty hunter would kill for. "Mayu, please." Genshou patted the young one's head. He then resumed the conversation. "She's very dangerous. But so am I. I only choose to keep my unruliness hidden, but she.. she's boastful." his interest in the woman peaked. "But, your work here isn't done. I want to track her down, but I need help. So.. I want you to come with me to Ame. Your task: to lure her from her location and eventually to me. You can sit back and watch at that point. However, if for some reason I can't handle it, I'll need your help." Genshou's eyes widened with his request. It was a big request, but if it got him closer to Yuzuki, he would do it. "So, how much do you want?" he asked just in case, since he knew that his friend Saizen would always need something for his help. Saizen smirks. "I was waiting for that. Well considering that I'd be endangering my life with a S-Ranked criminal who almost got me killed in my last encounter. She's also an international criminal and is on Kirigakure's blacklist. Though since I won't be capturing her or finishing her off, I think I'll give you a fair price." he pauses before smirking "Ninety million ryou!" "Absolutely not, that's too high. Eighty million ryō!" Genshou fired back. Mayu watched as the two men debated. "Damn, you're too stingy." Saizen says sarcastically. He pauses for a moment thinking about Genshou's offer. He finds that even though his friend took down a heavy chunk of money, yet what he's offering is not that low of a price. Especially since Saizen is completely confident in his fighting skills. However, due to his opportunistic nature he had to make a good profit out of it. "Alright, eighty million ... However, if I interfere the price will be one-hundred twenty million! How about that?" "Wait, an offer you can't refuse. Seventy-five million ryō with.. artificially-created women with enhanced sex drives, free of sexually-transmitted diseases. And, if I need your assistance taking her down, I'll pay you an additional forty million. If you don't want that, then I'll kill you." Genshou scowled as he mentioned the women, but he knew Saizen couldn't refuse women. As Saizen hears the offer it shocks him like a lightning bolt. His gaze becomes more sharp and he glares at Genshou how is using Saizen's own weakness against him. A drop of sweat runs down the side of Saizen's visage. "Playing dirty, eh? I accept the offer! That's only because I'm sure you'll need my help in the end." Saizen gets out a map from his Kimono and opens it on the table, he then points at the location where he will lure the so called bloody phantom. "There, this should be far away from the rain village. It might take time but I think I'll be able to maintain the chase without being touched by that cursed technique..." Genshou and Mayu looked at the map, noting where Saizen put his finger. "Correct. Now, if you could cause some sort of commotion that would lure her, that would be good. Since she's seen you before, you should be enough to lure her from her position. Now, are we ready to do this?" Genshou lent his hand to Saizen, while Mayu eagerly lent his hand out as well. "Commotion? Well you can say that. You got a deal." He shakes both of their hands and stands up. He puts on his straw hat, takes his map and starts striding away from Genshou, then he stopped suddenly. "Oh and Genshou ... Do not under any circumstances, let the black water touch you." he says with his back to his friend, then he waves with his hands in a careless manner "Later." he utters before leaving the bar. Genshou stood from his seat, placing his hat on his head as well, grabbing Mayu's hand. As he walked away, he internalized Saizen's statement. "Heh, you're mistaken, Saizen. It is she, who must watch for me, Genshou of The Unknown." he said rather grimly. The two parted ways, but not for long. ---- Present.. ---- 8:03 PM Near the outskirts of Amegakure, Saizen is striding in a slow manner. However, he's not walking on land. He's walking on water as he was crossing the boarders between the land of rivers and the land of rain. He's walking slowly but surely. With the little bunny on his shoulder. "Infiltrating Amegakure and being chased by the Chigen in order to lure her to the land of grass. Seems simple enough. I doubt she'll dispatch any of her forces since she wants to claim the bounty. And she tends to act so high and mighty from what I remember so there's a good chance she'll chase me alone." he ponders. "However, it's no where near an easy task." he then takes a glimpse at the bunny. "When we enter, be very careful, Kawatama. You're familiar with her techniques. Even though it has been a while, I think what she did back then is hard to forget." "Right" Kawatama says nodding. Saizen starts to notice ripples on the water. Droplets of rain descending from the sky onto the wide water plain, creating ripples that intersect with each other. "We're close..." Saizen notes. "They probably have a bunch of sensors that notices anyone who steps in the rain. So they're probably wondering right now what I'm doing here. However, in order to lure her out I need to cause some mayhem." He disappears with outstanding velocity, that's supported by his own physique. He rushes towards Amegakure under the glowing light of the full moon. Meanwhile, in the Amekage's mansion. "Sir! Our sensory squad reports the presence of an intruder that's closing in on the village, his speed is unreal! He must have already reached the-" the anxious shinobi's report is interrupted by the sound of a loud crash. It was Saizen who delivers a punch to the corner of a building, which causes it to collapse. "Ugh! He's already so close, sir!!! What's your orders??!" "Get me that man alive ... or dead if you have to." the Amekage replies with his visage obscured in shadows. Meanwhile, in the stealth division headquarters, a masked shinobi started rushing into different rooms and passages. "I MUST REPORT THIS TO THE CAPTAIN!!" He says out loud. He then reaches a door that looks different than any of the other rooms. The door is relatively larger. He knocks on the door and enters. A room that's nothing less than royalty. With a large desk in the middle of the room. The desk is black, contrasting with the white walls. The entire room is simply black and white. Behind the desk is a large chair. The back of the chair is facing the door. The shinobi kneels down. "Captain! there's an intruder that infiltrated Amegakure. He's managed to go past the guards and destroyed several buildings and he's fighting Amegakure's shinobi currently! What should we do??!!" the scared shinobi reports the situation briefly for his superior as they don't have much time on their hands. Bubbles begin to ascend from the chair and into the air only to pop after a few seconds. "I see." a feminine voice utters. The chair spins to facing the kneeling shinobi as it reveals the one sitting on it. She is an elegant woman. With blond hair that dropping down on her right eye like strands of golden silk. Her hair is short and soft, yet her bang is notable long. She is wearing a revealing white blouse that show her aspects. She conceals her lowers part with white silk cloth that reveals on of her legs. She's also wearing a black jacket with black feathers. Additionally, she holds a large pipe in her mouth. That pipe is the source of the ascending bubbles. She stares at the man with her piercing blue eyes. "What do you plan to do, Yūzuki-sama?!" the man questions. Yūzuki glares at the man with her penetrating gaze and starts to stride out of the room not uttering a single word. The woman walks calmly and slowly through the halls of the Stealth Division. "Who could be the one causing all that ruckus?" she ponders, blowing bubbles out of her pipe. "No matter. He came in time. It's been a while since I tasted blood ... So I have to make sure I don't go overboard. However ... that beautiful ... sensation of seeing blood..." Yūzuki begins to recall her previous victims in a crimson theme. "It's so..." she recalls even more slaughters. "So very ... irresistible!" she thinks as she makes her way towards the battlefield. Meanwhile, Saizen is fighting the Amegakure forces. He's battling with his immense Taijutsu prowess, taking down his foes with extreme strikes in vital areas, supported by his chakra. He moves with fluidity as if he's dancing with his enemies. All he requires is a well placed punch to the jaw, a thrust to the throat, a strike to the head in order to kill his enemies. With his unrivaled speed, it's hard to catch him or even touch him. He progresses through the enemy lines striking each one that comes in his way. "Damn, that's way too easy. When will they dispatch the elite jounin?" Saizen says to himself with an impassive expression on his visage. One that reflected his boredom. "Hey, you there." a voice says, emanating from the top of a building. It's none other than Yūzuki. When Saizen turns his face to her, the Chigen recalls their last encounter instantly. "It's you!" she says. Saizen smirks "Indeed" he says. "I hope that you don't intend on running like last time." she declares. Saizen looks at her and his smirk widens "Unfortunately for you, I am." he says as he dashes between the buildings with great speed attempting to escape towards the land of grass. The expression on Yūzuki's face says it all, she's livid. She's too blinded by her bloodlust to see through Saizen's trap. Yūzuki needs to consume blood on a regular basis in order to maintain her composed mind. However, if she doesn't get a sufficient amount of blood or if she's denied from it for long periods of time, her bloodlust and killing intent grows exponentially. "No one goes after that intruder! Except me. And that's a direct order from the Captain Commander of the Stealth Division." Yūzuki orders the shinobi in front of her. She then dashes towards Saizen in order to follow him. "His speed is amazing, that's one thing that didn't change about that bastard." she thinks as she tries to catch up with Saizen who is posing to run away from Yūzuki. The two shinobi are moving with great speed. And the cold climate affects the wind causing it to become cold as well. That wind collides with the skins of the two shinobi as they rush towards the land of grass. "What's the point in running away? Why did you infiltrate Ame in the first place?" Yūzuki questions the fleeing shinobi. Saizen pauses for a few seconds "Well they never told me that you were in the mix. I have no intention of fighting you. Let me be." Saizen uses his skills in order to act as if he's fleeing from Yūzuki out of fear in order to make the trap less susceptible. "Let you be? Heh, very unlikely. After I'm done with you, I'll use your blood to end my thirst, then I'll sell your head and claim your bounty. I'm sure the bounty even grew more since our last encounter." she notes as Saizen doesn't utter a word. Yūzuki attempts to throw several weapons as Kunai and explosive tags on Saizen. She even attempted several water release techniques. However, Saizen's evasive skills aided him in escaping them. He approaches the meeting location. Finally, after a long chase, they reach it. It's a wide field of long grass and trees. So ample that one almost doesn't see the end of it. It only contains grass, trees, bushes and damp soil. "You have no where to hide." Yūzuki says as she glares at Saizen who halted his rushed movements. He's giving his back to her, which is a risky move. "You're truly a mastermind, Chigen. I have to admit that. You managed to pull out a slaughter that no one thought was possible and there you are standing with grace and unharmed." Saizen says as Yūzuki maintains her silence. "However, I wouldn't advise you to underestimate me." he says before turning towards her and throwing some smoke bombs at her. She covers her visage with her arm as her eyes tries to find the man. After a few seconds, the smoke clears and he's no where to be found. "Useless. You're little games are child's play." she says performing the confrontation hand seal as she attempts to sense his chakra. However, there's no trace of it as Saizen managed to conceal his presence and hides in the bushes, which was Genshou's sign to step in the battlefield. "You're playing hide-and-seek, eh? No matter, I'll find you, you little bastard." The conditions had been met, it was Genshou's turn to enter the fray. A toxic poison cloud began to rise from the soil, signaling his arrival. "Chigen." the voice echoed from all over the battlefield. Yūzuki would not be able to pinpoint the original chakra source, as the poisonous gas seemed to hide it. Suddenly, Genshou's body became visible. His body was wrapped tightly in black clothing, and his pale skin, yellow eyes, and wild blue hair were the only things that made him stand out from the night's darkness. "I've heard a lot about you. You are the responsible.. for the massacre.. one that occurred in my hometown. But fear not, I don't want to kill you. I merely.. want to experiment." Genshou laughed maniacally into the night sky. His eyes shifted from yellow to scarlet. "You remain young because of.. a ritual. Your body smells strongly of Hōzuki. Beautiful." He licked his lips, a sign of his infatuation with the woman. He could then hear Mayu's faint laughing. Suddenly, he began to gag and cough, spitting up a dark liquid as he did so. With one loud retch, an arm pushed itself from out of Genshou's throat, covered in the disgusting liquid. The night stayed quiet for a split second, Genshou stayed quiet as well. But the silence was broken with a loud retch. The next image that would be seen by Yūzuki was a cluster of arms, branching from the first. Thousands of them branching from the other, soaring through the air as they did so. These arms would then open a single eye from their palm. They spotted the woman and rushed at her with incredible speed. Genshou remained immobile as the disgusting mutation grew larger. As soon as she sees the gas, Yūzuki leaps back away from it. She then sees Genshou's body appearing. She remains silent throughout his entire speech maintaining an impassive expression. Analyzing each and every small detail there is. Upon noticing the change in eye color, Yūzuki takes her guard. "A Dōjutsu?" Yūzuki whispers. "How troublesome." she continues. "I need to avoid looking directly in his eyes. This is troublesome. He has a degree of resistance to Genjutsu then. But no matter. Most likely, he put me under a Genjutsu." her chain of thoughts is broken by the limbs rushing towards her. "Heh, Child's play." She vanishes only to appear several meters away from the attack on a tree branch. With her proficiency in Genjutsu, Yūzuki has a solid resistance to Genjutsu and can dispel most Genjutsu without breaking a sweat. She weaves the confrontation hand seal and moulds her chakra to halt the chakra flow completely. She then pushes her own chakra violently in order to disrupt any Genjutsu that might have affected her as she cannot take any chances. "This should do it." she thinks. "Now, lets see what we have here. He seems to use poisonous chakra, a Dōjutsu and he has fine camouflage skills. If that's all he got ... then he wouldn't even bother chasing me." she thinks. Yūzuki started getting some pulses in her brain. It's the curse of the Hōzuki's forbidden technique. It starts to drain her sanity away bit by bit. This amplifies her killing intent to an extraordinary level. She puts her hand on her right eye that's under her bang. Her expression describes the amount of pain she's in. Slowly, the humanity in her eyes begins to fade away. She interrupts with a sick smirk as she removes her hand and regain her relaxed pose. "Lets get started, shall we?" she says out loud. Yūzuki lifts her left hand slowly and points towards Genshou's left shoulder "Mizudeppō no jutsu" she whispers as she fires a small water bullet towards Genshou's shoulder, which is concealed using her Yin chakra. Genshou smiled at Yūzuki's actions, she was quite clever. The man watched her fire a bullet of water at him, but it was masked. However, his eyes had saw the disturbance, and with quick reflexes, he moved slightly to the left. Yet, the bullet managed to rip through a part of his clothing and skin. He didn't yell out in pain, he had felt much worse. Within the blink of an eye, Genshou had pulled Muzanyaiba from his side. His eyes flashed and with a psychotic grin, Genshou thrust his sword many times at Yūzuki. Yūzuki smirks "Let's dance." she says as she leaps off the tree branch and onto the ground. Being chased by Genshou's swift thrusts, Yūzuki begins to evade the thrusts with extreme agility. Her movement is extremely fluent as she is able to avoid the devastating barrage of stabs. During the heat of the assault, she points at Genshou with both of her index fingers and fires two water bullets, one targeting his right thigh and the other targeting his left shoulder. Being fired from point-blank with amazing speed, they are extremely difficult to dodge especially with Genshou's momentum shifting towards Yūzuki with his thrusts. Wasting no time, she leaps back a fair distance and observes her foe. Genshou's eyes saw the amount of chakra building up in Yūzuki's fingertips with his dōjutsu, and immediately countered it. Muzanyaiba's creation remains unknown, but it is true that it's material is harder than most metals. Using the Assimilate All Creation Technique, Genshou's body became as sturdy as his sword's material, leaving the two bullets of water to simply dissipate into the air. He growled as Yūzuki evaded him once more. "Hm, your one of those fighters. The "run and jump".." Genshou's skin shone in the moonlight, appearing similar to a celestial body. Anyone observing the fight would've been temporarily blinded by the flash of light from his skin. Suddenly, his body seemed to slim down tremendously, becoming leaner. It was the Body Modification Technique. He had used it to increase his speed dramatically. He ran at the woman, Muzanyaiba glistening, and attempted to stab her with the longest prong. Yūzuki grabs a Kunai from her pouch and deflects the thrust by guiding Genshou's momentum downwards to the right, which made her parry the stab. She leaps back and smirks to her resilient foe. "Heh, you're better than I thought you'd be." she pauses for a few seconds, takes the pipe out of her mouth and hide it in her coat, before weaving the snake hand seal "Suiton: Bakusui Shōha!" she shouts before expelling a great amount of water from her mouth, creating a great wave that made its way towards Genshou. The wave progressed through the forest taking down most of the trees. Finally, the wave hits the ground creating a giant impact and creating a miniature ocean, which lures Saizen out who makes his way to the surface and jumped out in a rather comic way. Even his bunny was soaked. Yūzuki appears standing on the surface of the water as if nothing happened. She looks at Saizen with her piercing eyes that shines through the night like glowing pearls. "There you are." she says. However, she doesn't make any attempt to attack Saizen. He smiles and scratches his head. Yūzuki shifts her vision away from Saizen and locates Genshou. "You can come out already, I know you're there." She says locating his exact place as he's making contact with her water technique. The air was still for a few seconds, until a blade was held to her neck. It was Genshou. Due to his usage of the Concealment Technique, Genshou was able to penetrate the surface of the water among the commotion, undetected by all means. His golden eyes reflected like a cat's. "One simple movement, and it's death for you." he noted in her ear. The poison would kill her within minutes if it were to enter her body through a cut or wound. A demon lurked on his shoulder, a shroud of chakra that was heavy enough for her to feel the intent of death. Zabuza's own personal demons passed onto Genshou after his death, and he couldn't exorcise them. Only with victory over his enemies could he do so. Yūzuki remains still and smirks. In an instant, Yūzuki's body is converted into water and merges with the water underneath them. She reappears several meters away and returns to her original form. "Did you really believe that this could work? Honestly, if you did, that would be an insult." She says sarcastically. "Actually, I'm surprised you're not trying to outnumber me with your fellow over there. Nonetheless..." she smirks wickedly as she weaves two hand seals (Snake, Tiger), dozens of bubbles ascend from the water underneath the three shinobi. In a few seconds, the entire battlefield becomes filled with bubbles. "Well then, this should be ... flashy to say the least." she says sarcastically before weaving a one handed tiger hand seal. The look on Saizen's face changes "Well, that's a pain in the neck.". Yūzuki smirks as the bubbles detonate making a huge explosion that causes the water underneath the area of detonation to rise into the air violently. Using her hydrification technique, she's able to transform her body into water and escape the brunt force of the explosion. She then reforms again several meters away from the area of detonation, that's currently covered in smoke. She keeps her guard up, yet her pose is saying otherwise. Her stance is chilled and composed. She reaches for the pipe that's in her jacket and puts it in her mouth. She starts creating small bubbles from it as she closely analyzes her surroundings.